Green Careers More Than You Think

Some say that the takeover of the House of Representatives and several state governments byRepublicans in November of 2010 spells doom for green careers and a clean energy future. However, let’s be fair: President Obama had a two-year window in which he could have acted aggressively to move the country toward sustainable energy.

Sadly, instead of acting like Franklin D. Roosevelt, he chose British prime minister Neville Chamberlain as a role model and pursued a policy of appeasement. And frankly, since 2006 too many Democrats in Washington D.C. revealed themselves as being firmly in the back pocket of Exxon-Mobil, BP and the rest.

The bottom line: if we as the people of the U.S. and the world are to see a clean energy future free from the tyranny of Big Oil, we can expect very little help from our “elected” officials, who anymore are bought and paid for by global corporate interests to serve the wants and demands of the very rich.

As fossil fuels become increasingly scarce and difficult to obtain however, it will be necessary to make a transition toward sustainable energy alternatives, if only for our survival.

In the meantime, at least in more progressive and forward-thinking regions of the U.S., green careers will be growing. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, some of these that are in more immediate demand include bus drivers, railroad engineers and streetcar operators. As the cost of motor fuel continues to increase, it is likely that Americans, however reluctantly, will be increasingly led to give up the use of private automobiles and turn to mass transit solutions. Interestingly, the construction industry will be another growth industry as the demand for new, green construction and the retrofitting of older homes and buildings rises.

Thinking further down the road, some of these green careers include some occupations that relate to wind and solar energy technologies only indirectly. One of these is the job of public relations specialist, whose job it will be to counteract thirty years of corporate media propaganda and convince the general public that a sustainable energy future is in their best interest. There will also be a need for what will be known as CSOs, or “Chief Sustainability Officers” who will supervise and coordinate green energy projects and the organizations charged with implementing them.

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